Monday, May 23, 2011

I found a project!!! But I need your help!

Manakory aby (Hello Everyone)!

I hope this finds you all doing well and that work, school and life in general is good. As for me, I'm good, great actually! I've been in Peace Corps now for 10 months, with about a year and 4 months left but am thinking about extending my service for an extra year. If you have been following my blog, which I try to keep up with as much as I can (TisaInAfrica.blogspot.com), I hope you have been enjoying reading what I've been up to. I remember thinking that 2 years was such a daunting amount time and now it seems like it is going to run out before I know it!

I live in the rural commune of Sahambavy, located in the southern highlands, which is known for producing all of the tea production in Madagascar. Although technically we are considered "ambany vohitsa" (countryside), my commune is a progressive one. We have regular transportation to a larger city near by, a sizeable market twice a week, a library, elementary, middle and high schools, several chruches, a basic health center staffed with a doctor, midwife and pharmasist as well as supporting health educators in all the surrounding villages. I've spent enough time in my community now to understand what their needs are and have a ton of ideas for projects that I want to accomplish. My main concern when choosing which projects to focus on is the question of sustainability. Does my community actually want this project? Will they find it helpful? Will the people continue to use it after I have gone? A crucial factor in project sustainability is when the community is the driving force behind it. I am writing to you today to tell you about a project that my community has approached me about.

Each village is made up of a few small clusters of houses called tananas. There is a tanana called Toby in the village of Bedia that sits 5K away from the center of the commune. Several years ago a pastor began to support chronically ill people in Toby Bedia, by way of healing through prayer. A new church was built about 4 years ago to continue daily prayer for the people in Toby. This tanana has become a place where people with various physical and developmental illnesses are referred to because community members have committed themselves to being care takers as well as spiritual leaders for the sick. In an effort to improve the (goals) of Toby some of the community leaders have approached me about a project they would like to implement. The health center is located in the main part of the commune which means villagers have to walk to recieve consultations, vaccines or medications. A woman named Radety has been collaborating with the Mayor and Doctor to try to bring health care to the people of Toby Bedia. She would like to construct a building consisting of 4 rooms that would provide space for the doctor to do weekly consultations, keep a stock of medications and supplies as well as rooms for patients to recover after treatment.

As progressive as Sahambavy is, funding for such a project is hard to find. The commune and family members of the sick do their best to provide rice and clothing to the people of Toby, but the main funding for building the new church and a building to house the caretakers has come from the personal funds of Radety. After being approached by my community, spending some time in Toby to understand their lives and hearing about their ideas, I set out to search for funding for this project. Peace Corps has what is called the Peace Corps Partnership Programm (PCPP), which is a way for volunteers in country to connect with people at home to provide funding for materials for whatever project they are planning for. The way PCPP works is, say we need $3,000 USD to build this care center, and through your contributions and the efforts of PCPP we only raise $2,500, then the difference could be given from other people as the website is open for everyone to donate to. Unfortunately, it is not guaranteed that I would recieve that funding and if not, it would go into a Global Fund which would be dispersed to various projects around the world. Of course the funding would be used for other great causes but it would mean that my community and I would find ourselves back at square one.

The community members are the driving force behind this project. I met with them recently to explain the process of PCPP; not only are they writing the bulk of the project proposal (which I must say is a lot of work and needs to be done thoroughly) but they will also be contributing at least 25% of the total project cost. They are dedicated to making this project happen, so of course if they are put back to square one again they will try another strategy to get it done. I would love to see this project become a success the first go around while I am still here as support but I need your help! I am asking you all in advance to see if you are interested in contributing to this cause and a rough estimate of how much you would be willing to donate. If I can get enough responses/pledges, I will submit the proposal to PCPP for review and upon its approval the project will go on the Peace Corps website. This is where you can sumbit your donations and once the amount is reached the funds will be sent to me to begin project implementation. I want to secure donations prior to submitting the proposal in order to complete this project in a time frame that is not discouraging to my community, as well as allowing myself to be able to see it succeed.

I will be checking my email as regularly as I am able to so please send me a reply to my email below if you are interested! Also, please do not hestitate to forward this to anyone that may be interested in directly making a difference in Madagascar.



With love and peace,

Tisa Kunkee

Peace Corps Volunteer - Community Health - Madagascar

Email: Tisa.Kunkee@gmail.com